The pandemic does not stop transforming sectors.
And videogames has been one of them.
Spending a while with the sole intention of having fun, playing for fun, has been left behind for some.
There may be those who think that with electronic sports it was no longer like that, but what happened in recent months goes further.
Titles like
Axie Infinity
,
CryptoKitiies,
and
The Sandbox
have created a new digital marketplace that turns entertainment into money.
And not precisely because they sell billions of copies, but because the
blockchain
allows cryptocurrencies to become the center of these so-called
crypto games
.
More information
Virtual reality and 'blockchain' to play on your digital plot
The metaverse, the 'new' frontier of big tech
With
Axie Infinity
, the main culprit of this revolution, it is easier to understand how this new economic activity works.
The game looks like
Pokémon
.
Here, instead, you collect, train, feed, shop and compete with Axies.
The key is to get these characters through small love potions, which serve to feed them.
With the blockchain, these potions have become cryptocurrency, baptized as SLP, and with which to trade in the digital market.
The best players manage to win around 1,500 SLP (about 400 euros) daily thanks to their Axies.
But the explanation would be incomplete without NFTs (unique digital assets or
non-fungible
tokens
), which have already boosted the art and collecting sector - a tweet sold for more than two million euros - and which will make all the sense if the project of creating metaverses becomes a reality.
A metaverse is a universe created in cyberspace that is accessed with virtual reality and in which, ideally, it should be possible to travel through different experiences in a shared way with millions of other users.
Axies Market.
In
Axie Infinity
we can buy and sell these digital characters called Axies thanks to the fact that they become NFT. They have a unique value in ether (ETH), the second most relevant cryptocurrency behind bitcoin. But we not only generate money with these creatures, we can also trade with other elements, such as flowers, houses or barrels.
According to Jori Armbruster, CEO of EthicHub, this represents a total disruption of the digital economy.
Axie Infinity
has generated in a few months more than 2,000 million euros just with transactions. “In games, you used to charge for access. Now, in the middle of the
blockchain era
, the logic has changed. You share the value created. You generate a
token
[literally a
token
or
voucher
, that is, a privately issued unit of value] and distribute it to the entire community, in this case players, ”he adds. A community accessed by buying or renting three Axies. Although the price constantly fluctuates, the initial investment is around 300 euros.
The advantage of the critical world is its ease of inventing assets.
This is the case with the last coin launched by this video game.
They have called it the Axie Infinity Shard (AXS) and it grants the right to vote in the governance of the title, which in turn allows to obtain a share of the community treasury.
“They have even taken the digital gold represented in the game to transform it into physical gold.
They have turned a digital activity, typical of a metaverse, into an activity of real value in the physical world ”, points out Álex Preukschat, representative of the Blockchain Iberoamerica and Blockchain Spain alliance.
This is precisely one of the characteristics of these virtual universes: the creation of a digital economy.
Trading 'cryptokitties'
Saving economies
Axie Infinity
, created by the Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis, has 350,000 daily players, mostly from the United States, Venezuela and the Philippines. In this archipelago, the boom in crypto gaming has been such that it has helped to keep part of its economy afloat after the crisis caused by the coronavirus. "With little you do, you can get around 500 euros," explains Floren Molina, head of Cyber Defense at Accenture. This is the money you generate on average; And it's a lot for a country like the Philippines. A lot of people start having a job like this, in a metaverse. And it will go to more. Cryptocurrency wallets, with the help of bitcoin, are already common, "he says.
Looking at the most profitable trades, a player sold a mystical Axie named Angel for 300 ETH. That is, he obtained about 100,000 euros at the end of last year. Figures similar to those obtained by the game
Cryptokitiies
, with a dynamic very similar to that of
Axie Infinity,
although with cats instead of creatures. One called Dragon was sold for 600 ETH, close to 140,000 euros. “In the era of
blockchain
, the network effect can be
tokenized
. Facebook would do it with the
likes
, for example. The network effect has an enormous value in these games, where any interaction, data or movements of the users generate more and more value with the NFTs ”, Armbruster ditch.
It is difficult to dispel the doubts about whether these metaverses created by video games live surrounded by excessive speculation.
Crypto games are now all the rage, but the digital economy is burning through stages at breakneck speed.
Most experts agree that they are here to stay.
There will be adjustments.
Ups and downs.
So until they find stability.
According to Sergio Gallastegui, CEO of CodeContract, the security of these digital assets works in their favor.
With
blockchain they
represent something unique, impossible to replicate.
“An economy is created that the blockchain regulates and controls.
You can review everything that happened with the assets, that they are not duplicated.
And being unique, the price skyrockets ”, he points out.
Commercial image of 'The Sandbox'
Another strength is the decentralization of power.
As has happened with bitcoin, there are no large companies or central bodies that impose rules.
Gamers
and developers can meet, share tips and earn money together through private transactions.
This is the case with
The Sandbox
, similar to a best seller like
Minecraft
,
where players build things and trade them like NFT.
The most recurring thing in this title are plots to build within the game.
Last February, for example, it sold these spaces for a combined value of more than two million euros.
So recent and boisterous are these metaverses made by video games that Spain, experts say, has a golden opportunity to become a benchmark. The companies Satoshis Games and Triple 0 Games - the latter has recently managed to raise 200,000 euros to continue with its
Battle Derb
game
and - are at the forefront of crypto game developers, although they have not broken the bank like their older brother from Sky Mavis. In a similar position are other increasingly popular titles within this new market:
Alien Worlds
,
Plant vs Undead
and
Night Life
. "Decentralized finance uses money. Cryptocurrencies create that money. NFTs have allowed
tokenize
assets.
And these games are going to revolutionize everything.
To generate a lot of money now that we have established the use of
blockchain
”, concludes Armbruster.
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